Category: InformIT

If you’ve reached this blog via my guest post at The Dawn Patrol, welcome! Many thanks to Ms. Eden for allowing me to speak to her readers. While you’re here,Â I hope you’ll find usefulÂ informationÂ to help keep your computer running smoothly.

This blog is primarily about my full-time work as a technology writer and consultant. I do most of my day-to-day blogging at Maximum PC’s newly-remodeled website, and also blog from time to time at Amazon.com (where my current and older books are available for purchase) and my publisher’s developer-oriented website, InformIT.com.

I’ve just completed my “30 Hardware and Windows Tips in 30 Days” series at InformIT.com, the umbrella website for Que Publishing, Peachpit, and other book imprints in the Pearson EducationÂ family.

Most of these tips are self-contained, but a few of them are ‘to-be-continued’ two-parters. I’ll be featuring a hardware and a Windows tip each dayÂ over the next couple of weeks.

Hardware Tip of the Day

Have problems with slow writing speeds with some types of DVD or CD media? Poor system stability? Problems with your CD or DVD drive recognizing new types of media? The solution is simple: get a firmware upgrade for your DVD drive.

Speaking of Windows, you can now preview my forthcoming book Unleashing Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center. It’s available as a Rough Cut from the InformIT website. A Rough Cut is an unfinished version of the book that gives you an opportunity to see how the book is progressing.Â You can preview the book online or via PDF or preorder the book – all at a significant savings off the cover price.